Terra Rossa Genesis, Implications for Karst, and Eolian Dust:

A Geodynamic Thread
Enrique Merino and Amlan Banerjee1
Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, U.S.A.
(e-mail: merino@indiana.edu)

ABSTRACT
Although terra rossa has long been thought to form by residual dissolution of limestone and/or by accumulation of
detrital mud, ash, or dust on preexisting karst limestones, we present conclusive new field and petrographic evidence
that terra rossa forms by replacement of limestone by authigenic clay at a moving metasomatic front several centimeters wide. The red clays major chemical elements, Al, Fe, and Si, probably come from dissolved eolian dust.
The replacement of calcite by clay exhibits a serrated, microstylolitic texture that helps prove that replacement
happens not by dissolution-precipitation, as conventional wisdom has it, but by pressure solution of calcite driven
by the crystallization stress generated by the growth of clay crystals. The acid produced by the isovolumetric replacement of limestone by clay quickly dissolves out additional porosity/permeability in an adjacent slice of limestone
within the front, triggering a reactive-infiltration instability that should, theoretically, convert the moving reaction
front into a set of wormholes, then funnels, then sinksthe very karst morphology that in nature does contain the
terra rossa itself. This beautifully explains why terra rossa and karst are associated.

Introduction
have to be dissolved to yield a significant thickness
of terra rossa. According to the detrital theory, terra
rossa forms by accumulation of alluvial mud, volcanic ash, or eolian dust on limestones. A basic
problem of the hypothesis is that it does not account for the worldwide association of terra rossa
with karst carbonate rocks.
The purpose of this article is to propose a new
theory of terra rossa formation, by authigenic replacement of the underlying limestone at a narrow
reaction front. The new theory is based on field and
petrographic evidence on the terra rossa at Bloomington, Indiana. Since the clay is authigenic, its
major elementsAl, Si, and Femust come to the
front as aqueous ions. We propose that these aqueous ions probably result from dissolution of dust
at the surface. Taking account of recent insights
into the physics of mineral replacement (summarized in Replacement Physics) and into the dynamics of moving reaction fronts, we then show
that the clay-for-carbonate replacement, because it
generates acid, which dissolves out new porosity,
should trigger a morphological reactive-infiltration
instability, which theoretically specializes in
producing wormholes and funnels, precisely the

Terra rossa clays are red claystones up to several

meters thick and kilometers across that occur at
the earths surface and are associated with karst
carbonates. There are terra rossas across southern
Europe and South Australia (where they support
vineyards), the Caribbean and surrounding lands,
southern China, and elsewhere. The terra rossas in
Jamaica (Comer 1974) and southern France (Guendon and Parron 1985) grade into bauxite, an aluminum ore. The two existing theories about their
origin, the residual and the detrital, are discussed
in detail in Previous Work on Terra Rossa. Both
theories have problems, and both neglect to focus
on the contact between terra rossa and the underlying carbonate. According to the residual origin
hypothesis, terra rossa is the insoluble residuum
left by dissolution of limestone. Its main problem
(pointed out by nearly every proponent of the detrital theory) is that limestones contain little or no
clay or other insoluble minerals (Ruhe et al. 1961;
Ruhe 1975; Comer 1976; Mee et al. 2004), so unrealistically large thicknesses of limestone would
Manuscript received July 2, 2007; accepted October 12, 2007.
1
E-mail: ambanerj@indiana.edu.

[The Journal of Geology, 2008, volume 116, p. 6275] 2008 by The University of Chicago.
All rights reserved. 0022-1376/2008/11601-0004$15.00. DOI: 10.1086/524675

62

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

morphology characteristic of karst. That is, terra

rossa genesis and karst weathering appear to be coupled and mutually reinforcing phenomena that occur at the base of the terra rossa, driven by the
aqueous solutes resulting from dissolution of detrital dust by rain and soil water at the surface of
the terra rossa.
In the second article of this series (A. Banerjee
and E. Merino, unpub. manuscript), we will present
a quantitative reaction-transport model of terra
rossa formation based on the qualitative geochemical dynamics discovered and described here. The
quantitative model yields predictions of the front
width, bizonality, and velocity; the predictions
compare reasonably well to field, petrographic, and
paleomagnetic observations. Paleomagnetic observations made on the Bloomington terra rossa,
which allow us to date it and to estimate its rate
of formation, are presented in a third article (J. G.
Meert, F. Pruett, and E. Merino, unpub. manuscript).
Previous Work on Terra Rossa
The Residual Origin. This theory was proposed
early (de Lapparent 1930; Thornbury 1954) and survives in geomorphology textbooks. Of anecdotal interest is Bardossys uncritical description of terra
rossa research since the nineteenth century (Bardossy 1982, p. 329338, 350351). Thornbury (1954,
p. 319) simply took it for granted that terra rossa
is the residual product of limestone dissolution by
descending groundwater, the very dissolution
that is assumed to produce the depressions typical
of karst weathering. Moresi and Mongelli (1988),
after comparing chemical analyses of the insoluble
residue left by dissolving Apulia limestones to
chemical analyses of the terra rossa that occurs on
the limestones, thought that the terra rossa is probably in part a residue from limestone dissolution.
Other recent authors (Durn et al. 1999; Delgado et
al. 2003; Durn 2003), also on the basis of comparing
chemical analyses and comparisons of particle size
analyses, believe that only minor portions of specific terra rossa formations in southeastern Spain
and Istria (Croatia) are residual products of limestone dissolution, with the rest being detrital.
The residual theory of terra rossa origin has the
positive aspect of explicitly linking terra rossa genesis to karst formation, thus apparently explaining
their association, but it has two problems. First,
limestone dissolution can yield only a fraction of
the observed thickness of terra rossa, because limestones contain little insoluble minerals to begin
with and, in particular, little Si, Al, and Fe, which

63

are the major elements of terra rossa clay. This

mass deficit, pointed out by Ruhe et al. (1961), Ruhe
(1975, p. 1719), Comer (1974), Hall (1976), Olson
et al. (1980), Herwitz et al. (1996), Donovan (2002),
Foster and Chittleborough (2003), Mee et al. (2004),
Muhs et al. (2007), and others, is what gave rise to
the detrital theory. Second, the dissolution of limestone into sets of funnels and sinkholes that characterize karst weathering is attributed to the focusing of dissolution at supposed intersecting
subvertical fractures (e.g., Thornbury 1954; White
1988, p. 111; Donovan 2002; Twidale 2004), but this
fails to explain why at least some holes (such as
the one in the floater of fig. 6C; see Discussion), funnels, or sinks have no associated fractures, and it does not help explain the association
of terra rossa with karst.
The Detrital Origin.
According to the detrital
theory, terra rossa is an accumulation of detrital
materialalluvial mud (Ruhe et al. 1961; Hall
1976; Olson et al. 1980), volcanic ash (Comer 1974),
or eolian dust (Yaalon and Ganor 1973; Herwitz et
al. 1996; Yaalon 1997; Durn et al. 1999; Durn 2003;
Foster and Chittleborough 2003; Frumkin and Stein
2004; Muhs et al. 2007)on an (assumed preexisting) karst limestone. Although photos in National
Geographic (January 2004) of dust storms settling
Saharan dust on southern Europe, satellite photos
of dust plumes traveling from the Sahara to the
Caribbean, and extensive evidence obtained in the
past 25 years (e.g., Yaalon 1997; Prospero et al. 2001,
2002; Muhs et al. 2007), plus evidence of eolian dust
supply to weathering profiles on silicate rocks (e.g.,
Brimhall et al. 1988; Kurtz et al. 2001), leave no
doubt that eolian dust settles on all surface rocks,
including carbonates, in many parts of the world,
the idea that the terra rossa itself is a detrital accumulation (with or without later alteration) also
has problems. First, it implicitly assumes that dust
accumulates only on already karstified carbonates,
which not only converts the terra rossa/karst association into a coincidence but also neglects that
Guendon and Parron (1985), based on excellent
field evidence, demonstrated that the karst under
the terra rossa/bauxite at the bauxite type locality
of Les Baux, southern France, had developed simultaneously with the development of the bauxitic
horizons. (Their evidence was an isopach map
showing that the greater thicknesses of bauxite occur precisely above limestone sinks and the smaller
thicknesses of it occur above the domes between
sinks.) Second, it does not account for the common
occurrence of floaters in terra rossain situ
limestone blocks of any size completely surrounded by, and floating in, the red clay: how

64

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

could detrital mud or dust get into a limestone and

isolate one such block? (Floaters are uncovered frequently by developers in Bloomington. Many are
exhibited in front yards of private houses for their
interesting shapes, abounding in concavities; one
is shown in fig. 6C.)
Methodological Shortcomings.
Aside from the
problems listed with both ideas of terra rossa formation, there are also methodological flaws in the
evidence adduced to support them in previous research. Many researchers, trying to demonstrate
that a terra rossa is a detrital deposit of eolian dust
or volcanic ash, have compared chemical or isotopic analyses (of Al/Fe, Zr, and Sr isotope ratios,
U isotope ratios, or rare earths) of terra rossa, of the
underlying limestone, and of dust or ash and have
demonstrated that a number of chemical elements
in the terra rossa are indeed allochtonous (see Delgado et al. 2003; Durn 2003; Mee et al. 2004; Muhs
et al. 2007), but this finding does not necessarily
imply that the mineral grains containing those elements are themselves detrital. They could be authigenic instead, but this possibility does not appear to have been considered by previous authors.
It seems to us that chemical analysis is by itself
blind to whether a rocks mineral grains are detrital
or authigenic, a crucial distinction ascertainable
petrographically.
This brings us to a second methodological problem. To our knowledge, and with the single exception of Ruhe et al. (1961), discussed in the next
paragraph, soil scientists appear to have neglected
the study of terra rossa origin by polarized-light
petrography, the only technique that couldwith
luckenable an observer to establish whether mineral grains in rocks are detrital or authigenic (Williams et al. 1954; Pettijohn 1957, p. 111112) and,
if authigenic, whether they are cements, replacements, or displacive crystals (Folk 1965). It may be
relevant to note in this regard that benchmark textbooks of soil micromorphology, such as Brewers
(1964) and FitzPatricks (1993), do not stress concepts and textures fundamental in understanding
the genesis of rocks, such as authigenic, cement, and replacement. The excellent micromorphological atlas by Delvigne (1998) goes a long
way toward bridging the gap between the aims of
soil micromorphology and the aims of petrography
of rocks, although the effort is marred by an opaque
terminology. An additional subtle problem may be
that terra rossa is often referred to as terra rossa
soils, a term that, in effect, takes for granted that
the genesis of terra rossa clays is pedological by
definition. As we show in this article, however, it
is more accurate to view terra rossa as a claystone

meters thick that grows authigenically at its base

by replacement of the underlying limestone. Of
course, the top portion of that claystone may later
beif it is not eroded firstpedologically altered
into a soil.
As noted, Ruhe et al.s (1961) study (summarized
by Ruhe [1975], p. 1719) of the terra rossa of Bermuda is, to our knowledge, the only one where thin
sections of terra rossa samples taken from small
karst funnels were examined with a polarized-light
microscope. Ruhe found what he called sand-sized
grains of calcium carbonate surrounded by red
clay and, perhaps unaware that those grains
might be simply unreplaced bits of limestoneunreplaced small floaterswent on to call them sand
grains (no longer just sand-sized grains); on this
sole basis, he concluded that the terra rossa must
be an accretionary layer in the soil, that is, a detrital sediment or pedisediment. But replacement
may be very difficult to detect (Pettijohn 1957, p.
111112), especially where it is complete and
where preservation of internal details is poor (or
where there were no details to preserve), even if the
petrographer is explicitly looking for it. It implies
no criticism of Ruhe et al. (1961) to say that they
could have missed it.
Another problem for previous workers has been
seeing the terra rossa/limestone boundary as
sharp (Comer 1974; Hall 1976; R. V. Ruhe, pers.
comm., 1978; Olson et al. 1980) and taking that
sharpness as evidence that the terra rossa is detrital.
As our figure 1 demonstrates, however, the boundary is actually a reaction zone several centimeters
thick, which we describe next. An unintended consequence of seeing the contact with the underlying
limestone as sharp, combined with routinely referring to terra rossa as a soil, has been to deflect
the attention of subsequent students of terra rossa
origin away from its bottom, which turns out to be
the best place to demonstrate petrographically that
the red clay replaces the calcite.
New Evidence: Reaction Front
In 2005, we discovered a metasomatic reaction
front, shown in figure 1, between terra rossa and
the underlying Salem Limestone, on a wall of the
excavation for the foundation of a new science
building on the campus of Indiana University,
Bloomington. The front is subvertical, cuts across
bedding, and is 12 m below the surface. It consists
of a bleached zone A, 3 cm wide, and a replacement
zone B, 6 cm wide. Zone B is the region where the
replacement of limestone by clay was last in progress: white, still-unreplaced bits of calcite are vis-

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

65

Figure 1. Reaction front between terra rossa and Salem Limestone at the construction site for Simon Hall, Indiana
University campus, Bloomington. The Salem Limestone is a coarse-grained calcarenite, here massive and horizontal.
The front thus cuts across bedding. It consists of a zone of bleached carbonate (zone A) 3 cm wide, containing a thin
subzone of opaques, and a zone of clay-for-calcite replacement (zone B) 6 cm wide. The labels 2a, 2b, 3a, etc.,
correspond to the approximate spots of photomicrographs in figures 2a, 2b, 3a, etc.

ible in zone B (fig. 1b). The bleached zone A contains a thin subzone of opaque grains of a Mn oxide.
The Mississippian Salem Limestone is a massive
calcarenite consisting mostly of coarse crinoid and
bryozoan fragments cemented by clear calcite;
chemical analyses provided by the Indiana Geological Survey indicate that the unaltered Salem contains small amounts of Al, Mn, Si, and Fe, generally
less than 1 wt% of their oxides.
Petrography, Zone B. The field evidence of a replacement-and-bleaching front is confirmed by petrographic analysis of six thin sections from samples
from the front. (Another 60 terra rossa samples not
from the front have been examined petrographically, and about 25 of them have been studied magnetically.) Figure 2c shows a circular crinoid columnal from the replacement zone that is partly
replaced by an orange clay aggregate that preserves
the shape and volume of the replaced portion of the
crinoid, a feature characteristic of replacement. Fig-

ure 3a shows another partial replacement of the

center of a calcite cement plate by orange clay; the
two unreplaced ends are still in optical continuity
(fig. 3b), showing that they have not been displaced
or rotated and that the replacement is therefore isovolumetric. Figure 3c shows an incipient replacement of another crinoid fragment by orange clay;
the incipient replacement is also clearly volume for
volume and exhibits a striking serrated microtexture also shown in figure 4a, 4b. We return to that
serrated texture in Replacement Physics.
The crossed-polars photomicrographs (fig. 3b, 3d)
show that the orange clay aggregates replacing the
calcite cement and fossils have crystalline texture;
that is, they consist of interlocking crystals and
thus indicate authigenesis. The orange crystals are
Fe3-bearing kaolinite; see Mineralogy. The fact
that, in the replacement zone, the calcium carbonate fossils and cement are only partly replaced and
occur in all stages of replacement from incipient

66

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

Figure 2. Petrography of the leaching and replacement zones. The site of each photomicrograph is marked in figure
1. a, Unaltered Salem Limestone consists of bryozoans and equinoderm fragments (black arrows) well cemented by
clear calcite cement. Plane-polarized light. b, Dissolution voids (see also those in the unreplaced portion of the crinoid
in c) are produced in the bleaching zone by leaching of calcite driven by the H released by the replacement taking
place in zone B, reaction (1). Crossed polars. c, Circular crinoid columnal at center is partly replaced by orange
kaolinite (black arrow) in the replacement zone (B) of figure 1. The circular shape of the replaced portion is roughly
preserved, indicating isovolumetric replacement, a fact used in adjusting reaction (1). The crinoid was slightly leached
when it was in the bleaching zone (A), before it started to be replaced. The leaching can be seen in the unreplaced
portion (white arrow) of the calcitic columnal. Plane-polarized light. d, A fairly mature iron oxide pisolite from far
behind and above the front, surrounded by terra rossa clay. Both pisolite and clay contain many quartz silt grains,
probably left undissolved from dissolution of eolian dust and worked into the terra rossa pedologically; see Elements
Making Up the Red Clay Probably Come from Dissolved Dust. The pisolite grew slowly (from an incipient precursor
like the one in fig. 3a), replacing the surrounding clay and incorporating its quartz silt grains. Plane-polarized light.

to nearly complete makes the identification of the

authigenic replacement unmistakable. By contrast,
in most thin sections of terra rossa samples taken
far behind the front, the carbonate is completely
replaced, so that fossil shapes are no longer unequivocally preserved or recognizable.
The authigenic kaolinite crystals may reach 1
mm or more in size. Some display faint growth
rings. We do not interpret the rings as evidence of
cutans formed by detrital illuviation because they
are contained within large, authigenic, single crystals, as seen by their sharp extinction under crossed
polars. Illuviation, if understood as detrital, can

happen in a soil, but it seems doubtful that it could

reach the bottom of a terra rossa claystone several
meters thick. Also, detrital illuviation cutans display sweeping (not sharp) extinction under crossed
polars. (Interestingly, Brewer [1964, p. 224] says that
illuviation cutans are formed by movement of the
cutanic material in solution or suspension [our italics] and subsequent deposition. Note that Brewer
did not see it as relevant whether a cutan is authigenic, detrital, or recrystallized-detrital [as is the
matrix of graywackes; Williams et al. 1954, p. 297]
and included all possibilities in the definition.)
Bleaching Zone, Zone A. The bleaching zone of

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

67

Figure 3. Clay-for-calcite replacements in zone B of the terra rossa front. Sites of the photomicrographs are marked
in figure 1. Zone B is the zone of current replacement. a, Large orange clay aggregate (between arrows) partly replaces
the center of a plate of calcite cement in zone B, leaving two still-unreplaced portions (crosses), one on each side.
The crinoid at center is also still unreplaced. The clay aggregate contains an incipient, fuzzy iron oxide pisolite (pi)
that has crystallized recently, like the clay itself. b, Same as a, under crossed polars, showing that the two portions
of unreplaced calcite cement are in optical continuity and that the clay aggregate consists of interlocking crystals,
indicating that the red kaolinite is authigenic. c, Brown clay starts (at arrow) to replace a crinoid fragment, producing
a striking serrated texture (Pettijohn 1957, p. 674) also evident in figure 4a and throughout the replacement zone B;
see Petrography, Zone B. Plane-polarized light. d, Same as c, under crossed polars, showing the large size of some
of the authigenic clay crystals by the size of areas with one birefringence (arrow).

the front, zone A in figure 1, is white, contains a

thin belt of black opaque particles of a Mn oxide,
and under a microscope is seen to contain many
large dissolution pores, visible in figure 2b as the
areas under extinction. This high-porosity/permeability region, occurring primarily in zone A (and to
a lesser extent in zone B) but not in the fresh limestone ahead of the front or in the terra rossa left
behind it, is crucial for the dynamics of the front.
Pisolites.
The authigenic clay in the replacement zone contains, floating in it, a few small,
fuzzy aggregates (such as the one marked pi in
fig. 3a) of very dark brown Fe oxides that are also
authigenic (Nahon 1991, p. 158 and fig. 4.14). They
are the precursors of more mature pisolites, with

incipient concentric layering that can be seen in

thin sections of terra rossa far behind the front (see
fig. 2d), may reach 0.5 cm in diameter, and are
eroded out of the terra rossa at many spots in
Bloomington. Most pisolites consist of goethite,
but a few consist of maghemite, a strongly magnetic polymorph of hematite (Pruett 1959; J. G.
Meert, F. Pruett, and E. Merino, unpub. manuscript).
Mineralogy. X-ray diffractograms of Bloomington terra rossa show phyllosilicate peaks at ap , as was
proximately 7, 10, and (expandable) 1213 A

reported by Olson et al. (1980). The 7-A peaks must

correspond to kaolinite, identified optically by its
deep orange color, weak pleochroism, single cleav-

68

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

age, parallel extinction, and low birefringence

(though higher than pure kaolinites). By comparison with the kaolinites typical of laterites (Nahon
1986, p. 171; Muller et al. 1995), the orange color
and pleochroism undoubtedly reflect some substitution of Fe3 for Al in the kaolinite.
Replacement Physics
To interpret the clay-for-calcite replacement geochemically and to model terra rossa formation by
metasomatic replacement at a moving reaction
front (A. Banerjee and E. Merino, unpub. manuscript), it is essential to understand how a replacement takes place. In this section, we summarize
the new theory of replacement that emerges from
Maliva and Siever (1988), Merino et al. (1993), Nahon and Merino (1997), Merino and Dewers (1998),
and Fletcher and Merino (2001). The essence of the
new theory is that a replacement takes place because the new mineral pressure-dissolves the host
by means of the induced stress, or crystallization
stress, that it exerts as it grows.
The term replacement, as long used by petrographers (e.g., Bastin et al. 1931, p. 586 ff; Williams et al. 1954; Pettijohn 1957, p. 111), refers to
the occurrence of a guest mineral A just where the
host B used to be but preserving both the volume
and (often) some internal morphological details of
B. Replacement is thus detectable only visually; see
figure 4c. Because morphological details are preserved, A growth and B dissolution must be simultaneous. Because the volume is preserved, A
growth and B dissolution must be coupled so as to
make their volumetric rates mutually equal, as
these could not be equal otherwise. But what is the
coupling factor?

Figure 4. Mineral replacement via pressure solution. a,

Serrated microtexture produced by the growing clay (upper half) as it replaces the carbonate (lower half) in zone
B of the terra rossa front of figure 1. This microstylolitic
texture is excellent evidence that the replacement of the
host calcite took place not by dissolution-precipitation,
as is generally thought, but via pressure solution driven
by the crystallization pressure exerted by the growing
clay; see Replacement Physics. Crossed polars. b, Another microstylolitic texture, produced here by the replacement of pentlandite by actinolite in an igneous ore
from South Africa; see text. (Backscattered-electron photomicrograph by C. Li; from Li et al. 2004). c, Replacement of dolomite for sphalerite in Pb-Zn ores at Galmoy,
Ireland, beautifully preserving the sphalerite layering
(Merino et al. 2006). If the replacement had taken place

by dissolution-precipitation, the sphalerite layering

would have been destroyed by sphalerite dissolution before the dolomite grew and could not have been preserved. Also, sphalerite dissolution could not have triggered the growth of dolomite because the two minerals
have no elements in common and sphalerite could not
have known how to dissolve leaving a void with the
shape of the future dolomite idiomorph. But with replacement viewed as resulting from pressure solution of
the sphalerite by the growing dolomite, the petrographic
features of the replacementpreservation of host morphological details and of volume (and equality of volumetric rates)are easily accounted for; see Replace` . Canals,
ment Physics. (Photomicrograph by A
University of Barcelona.)

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

Perhaps since the influential article by Weyl

(1959), whowithout mentioning replacement and
apparently unaware of its uniqueness as grasped by
Bastin et al. (1931), Williams et al. (1954), Pettijohn
(1957), and other petrographersimplicitly regarded mineral replacement as dissolution plus precipitation, mineral replacement has been identified
with its assumed mechanism, dissolution-precipitation (e.g., Walker 1962; Carmichael 1969;
Plummer 1975; Knauth 1979; Milliken 1989; Putnis 2002; Putnis and Mezger 2004; Rendon-Angeles
et al. 2006), a mechanism whereby the dissolution
of the host is assumed to precede and chemically
trigger the precipitation of the guest. However, dissolution-precipitation fails to account for the
dolomite-for-sphalerite replacement shown in figure 4c. (1) If the sphalerite had dissolved first, how
could the later dolomite have preserved its botrioidal layering at all? (2) If the sphalerite had dissolved
first, how could it have known to dissolve leaving a hollow with the euhedral shape of the future
dolomite? (3) How could sphalerite dissolution trigger instant dolomite growth if the two minerals
have no chemical elements in common? (4) Even
if there were elements in common between host
and guest (as there are indeed between calcite and
dolomite in dolomitization), how could that chemical feedback ensureexcept by chance or by experimental designthat the guest mineral would
precipitate at the exact place the host had dissolved
and at the same volumetric rate (so as to preserve
volume)? Other cases where the chemical coupling
implicitly taken for granted in dissolution-precipitation also does not exist are the common replacement of limestone by chert (Maliva and Siever
1988) and the replacement of pentlandite by actinolite shown in figure 4b (Li et al. 2004).
Thus, Maliva and Siever (1988), after discussing the weaknesses of dissolution-precipitation
pointed out above and others, all of which invalidate it as accounting for a replacement texture in
the sense of Bastin et al. (1931), had the brilliant
new idea that a replacement happens when the
guest mineral A starts to grow at a point in a rigid
rock and, via the crystallization stress that it exerts
on host B, pressure-dissolves B as it grows. Maliva
and Siever invoked not a chemical coupling but a
physical coupling between A growth and B dissolution; that is why it works in all cases, regardless
of whether A and B have components in common.
Dewers and Ortoleva (1989) demonstrated Maliva
and Sievers conjecture, using the Navier-Stokes
equation for momentum conservation. Nahon and
Merino (1997) showed how replacement by induced-stressdriven pressure solution automati-

69

cally forces the rates of A growth and B dissolution

to become mutually equal, thus preserving mineral
volume. Merino and Dewers (1998) showed that
morphological details of the host can be preserved
if the growth increments of the guest are smaller
than the details themselves (but are erased otherwise, much as the details of a photograph would
be erased if we tried to replace them with too-large
tiles or pixels). Fletcher and Merino (2001) calculated the growth-induced stress and the replacement rate from interacting rheology and stressdriven kinetics.
Another hint that replacement does involve pressure solution comes now from the clay-for-calcite
replacements in the Bloomington terra rossa. As
the clay replaces the calcite, a striking serrated microtexture develops, shown in figure 4a and seen
throughout the zone of current replacement, zone
B. Pettijohn (1957, p. 216, 674) discussed such serrated texture but for minerals different from clay
and calcite. If the serrated texture in the terra rossa
means what it means in stylolitizationnamely,
that it is produced by pressure solutionthen it
implies that the replacement of calcite by clay does
happen via pressure solution as well, lending unexpected support to Maliva and Sievers (1988) conjecture. The replacement in figure 4b of pentlandite
(a nickel sulfide) by actinolite (a Ca-Mg amphibole)
in an igneous ore from South Africa (Li et al. 2004)
displays the same microstylolitic texture and is
also excellent independent evidence that pressure
solution was involved in the replacement. (Note
that the absence of serrated texture in a particular
replacement does not mean that pressure solution
was not involved in it.) For the following section
and for the second article of this series (A. Banerjee
and E. Merino, unpub. manuscript), we retain the
idea that the replacement of calcite by clay is isovolumetric and takes place by clay-growthdriven
pressure solution of the calcite.
Dynamics of the Reaction Front
The dynamics of the replacement-and-leaching front
is determined by the reactions happening in it and
their feedbacks, and it has two interrelated aspects.
The chemical dynamics discussed in this section
gives rise to, and interacts with, a morphological
dynamics of the front, discussed in The ReactiveInfiltration Instability and the Origin of Karst.
The chemical dynamics is schematically shown
in figure 5: aqueous Al, Si, and Fe reach the front
from the terra rossa side and combine at the front
to produce clay crystals that replace calcite grains
and fossils by reaction (1) below, releasing acid that

70

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

Local Mass Balance upon Replacement. The constant-volume replacement of calcite by clay (here
assumed to be pure kaolinite for simplicity) can be
written as

2.7CaCO 3(calc) 2Al3 2SiO2

5H 2 O p Al 2 Si 2 O5 (OH) 4(kaol)
2.7Ca 2.7HCO3 3.3H,

Figure 5. Dynamics of the replacement-and-leaching

reaction front of figure 1. Under advective supply of aqueous Fe, Al, and Si from the right, clay crystals grow and
partly replace calcite fossils and cement in the current
replacement zone, releasing H ions according to reaction (1). This H leaches more limestone, creating the
adjacent bleached zone. In the near future, when replacement in the current replacement zone is complete, the
locus of limestone replacement will shift to todays
bleached zone, and the acid generated there will leach
now still-fresh limestone. The front travels toward the
limestone, leaving behind a trail of terra rossa clay, the
age of which is increasingly older the farther it is behind
the front (or increasingly older the higher it is above the
front, if the front is moving downward).

immediately bleaches and dissolves voids in an additional slice of limestone, zone A. When the unreplaced calcite in todays replacement zone B is
completely replaced in the near future, replacement
will start in what is today the bleached zone, A, and
the acid generated there will start leaching and
bleaching what is today still fresh limestone just to
the left of zone A in figure 1b. This is how the metasomatic front moves across the limestone, leaving
behind (and/or above) it a trail of terra rossa that is
increasingly older the farther it is from the front.

(1)

where the 2.7 (ratio of formula volumes of kaolinite

and calcite p 99/37) ensures constant volume. As
implied in the previous section, the mass balance
(eq. [1]) is really the sum of two stress-coupled reactions: clay growth from its aqueous ions and crystallization-stressdriven pressure solution of an
equal volume of calcite.
Choice of Species in Equation (1). Before we discuss the consequences of the release of acid by reaction (1), a word is in order about the choice of
aqueous and mineral species in it. All CO
re3
leased by calcite is assumed to pair with H to become the released HCO3 . The aqueous aluminum
in reaction (1) is in the form of Al3 because it
would probably be the predominant Al species in
the pore fluid (because meteoric and soil waters in
authigenic clays are bound to be weakly acid) and
because, as an already octahedrally coordinated
species, it is the ion that actually enters into the
octahedral sheet of the kaolinite structure (Merino
et al. 1989).
If, instead of pure kaolinite, we had chosen Fe3bearing kaolinite or illite in reaction (1), which
would be more realistic than pure kaolinite, the left
side of equation (1) would contain species such as
Fe3, Mg2, and K, in addition to Al3. Again, Fe3
would be the appropriate and perhaps predominant
aqueous iron species in the acid environment of
authigenic terra rossa clays. In all cases, the replacement mass balance would still release H.
Consequences of Replacement (Eq. [1]). Reaction
(1) has an important by-product, H. The H should
leach an adjacent slice of limestone, giving rise to
a bleached zone, which is indeed what happens; see
zone A in figure 1. It should also liberate the trace
of Mn2 contained in the limestone (the Salem contains up to 0.06 wt% Mn; Indiana Geological Survey, pers. comm.), which would immediately oxidize to Mn3 and/or Mn4 and reprecipitate as tiny
black Mn oxide particles. This is also what happens, in fact; see the thin black subzone of zone A

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

in figure 1b. But most important, the released H

should dissolve out voids in zone A by the reaction
CaCO 3(calc) H p Ca HCO3 ,

(2)

and this is also confirmed by the dissolution voids

shown in figure 2b. The voids increase the porosity/
permeability of zones A and (to some extent) B and
appear to be mostly plugged later by clay growth that
replaces the bleached calcite. In the language of dynamics, the moving bleached zone becomes a porosity soliton, or a single porosity wave. The porosity
wave traveling across the limestone should trigger
a reactive flow instability that makes the replacement self-accelerating and the front spontaneously
fingered, as discussed in detail in The ReactiveInfiltration Instability and the Origin of Karst.
The occurrence of the predicted bleached zone
adjacent to the replacement zone, with its thin
black belt and its dissolution pores, is excellent
evidence that the observation of replacement, the
conjecture that it occurs via pressure solution, and
its representation by reaction (1), are correct. This
is an important point. Note that the conventional
dissolution-precipitation processnamely, the calcite host dissolves first, followed by growth of guest
kaolinite; see Replacement Physicscould not
possibly preserve mineral volume, a basic property
of replacement and one we observe petrographically (fig. 2c; fig. 3a, 3b), since there is only at best
a weak coupling (via H) between the the calcite
and the kaolinite and their rate constants differ by
five or more orders of magnitude. In addition, if the
calcite host had dissolved first, there would be no
way for the growth of the guest kaolinite to preserve morphological features of the calcite, such as
the circular shape of the crinoid in figure 2c, the
other basic feature of replacement. (These problems
of the dissolution-precipitation mechanism become evident in our quantitative reaction-transport
model of terra rossa genesis [A. Banerjeee and E.
Merino, unpub. manuscript].)
Cementation. As the unleached calcite of zone
A starts to be replaced by kaolinite, not only does
reaction (1) take place but also the previously
dissolved-out pores may become cemented or halfcemented by kaolinite, according to
2Al3 2SiO2 5H 2 O p
Al 2 Si 2 O5 (OH) 4(kaol) 6H,

(3)

which also produces acid that would help that produced by reaction (1) to generate the next leaching
zone. As noted in Discussion, this cement may

71

interfere with the operation of the reactive-infiltration instability (see The Reactive Infiltration
Instability and the Origin of Karst), by plugging
some of the porosity/permeability created by the
leaching.
Elements Making Up the Red Clay Probably
Come from Dissolved Dust
Many investigators, cited in Previous Work on
Terra Rossa, have shown that specific terra rossa
formations contain chemical elements that can be
traced to elements in eolian dust, confirming the
fact that eolian dust must settle on the earths surface. But since the red clay making up terra rossa
is authigenic, as shown in figures 1, 3b, and 3d, the
Al, Fe, and Si needed to make the clay crystals must
be supplied to zone B as aqueous ions. We therefore
suggest here that the aqueous Si, Fe, and Al supplied to the front come from the dust fraction that
is dissolved at the surface of the existing terra rossa
and then delivered, by infiltration, to the front a
few meters below. Acid rain and soil water would
quickly dissolve the finest fraction of the dust,
which presumably is clay rich. In support of this
idea is the following petrographic evidence.
If the finest dust is dissolved, the undissolved
fraction, in general mainly quartz (and feldspar) silt,
should be left on the terra rossa and would be
worked into it pedologically. (The quartz silt would
be insoluble in the soil pore water, enriched in silica by dissolution of the finest dust fraction.) Indeed, we have seen (fig. 2d) scattered quartz silt in
many thin sections of Bloomington terra rossa.
The Reactive-Infiltration Instability
and the Origin of Karst
Where a reactive fluid both flows through a porous
rock and partly dissolves it, a porosity-making front
is established that was quantitatively predicted in
the 1980s and 1990s to become fingered (Chadam
et al. 1986; Ortoleva et al. 1987; Aharonov et al.
1997); see figure 6A. The dissolution increases porosity/permeability, which accelerates advection of
reactive water. In turn, the faster advection accelerates further dissolution. This is the reactiveinfiltration instability. It works as follows. Any
higher-than-average porosity/permeability in a volume element of the front, such as at point a in
figure 6A, captures flux from the neighbor elements. Dissolution thus accelerates at a, increasing
its porosity/permeability even more, drawing still
more flux from the neighbor elements and producing a high-permeability finger. Simultaneously, the

72

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

Figure 6. The reactive infiltration instability; see text.

A, Schematic representation of the spontaneous fingering
of a dissolution front moving through a porous rock, produced by the reactive infiltration instability. Any slight
excess porosity/permeability at a point of the front, point
a, captures reactive water (arrows) from its neighbor
regions, b, increasing the dissolution rate at its tip, a
,
and simultaneously starving its neighbor zones, b, which
are left behind (b
) as the front advances, creating new
fingers at c, which themselves grow faster than b and
become new fingers. See the predicted fingering in Aharonov et al. (1997; their fig. 3). B, Schematically, jumps
in the scale of finger spacing predicted to take place spontaneously (Szymczak and Ladd 2006). C, Actual fingers
or wormholes in a floater from Bloomington.

neighbor volume elements b, deprived of reactive

flux, get left behind by a and also by volume elements farther out, c, which now start to become
new fingers or funnels of higher permeability themselves and later produce still others farther away.
Soon, the front becomes an advancing set of po-

rosity/permeability fingers. (This competitive morphological dynamics also takes place in the completely different context of quartz growth within
agates in basalts; see Wang and Merino 1995. In
that case, the fingers of the instability are the
quartz fibers themselves, which make agates invariably fibrous.) After the terra rossa front has become fingered, the competition for reactive flux
continues among the fingers themselves, leading to
successive jumps in the spacing and size of the fingers (Szymczak and Ladd 2006). The predicted cascade of scales is shown schematically in figure 6B.
From being a set of advancing fingers, the front
passes to being a set of funnels one order of magnitude larger than the fingers. In turn, the funnels
later jump to sinks an order of magnitude greater
in size and spacing than the funnels.
The reaction front we have discovered between
terra rossa and the underlying Salem Limestone appears to be a natural case of the kind of moving
porosity-making front whose dynamics is described
above and in figure 6. The instability-triggering dissolution is the leaching (eq. [2]) carried out in the
bleached zone by the acid released by reaction (1)
in the replacement zone. The replacement-plusbleaching front should therefore become fingered
as it advances into limestone, and the fingers
should jump to funnels and these to sinkholes. But
these predicted forms coincide with the morphological features that are characteristic of karst carbonates (e.g., Thornbury 1954; White 1988; Donovan 2002; Twidale 2004). We thus arrive at the
surprising realization that the terra rossas authigenic clay indirectly makes the very karst limestone morphology that contains it, which explains
why the two are associated.
The singularity and separation between karst
funnels or sinks are traditionally attributed to the
focusing of descending acid water by intersecting
fractures, which are conveniently assumed to have
the spacing required to produce the observed sinkhole spacing (e.g., White 1988; Twidale 2004). Admittedly, limestone dissolution would be faster at
the intersection of two subvertical fractures, giving
rise to a funnel or sink, but intersecting fractures
are an accidental feature, one that cannot be
counted on systematically to determine the location of every sink of every karst, and furthermore,
the assumed intersecting fractures have to have the
required spacing to produce the observed spacing
between karst features. (Most concavities in many
floaters in Bloomingtons front yards do not exhibit
intersecting fractures; see fig. 6C.) On the other
hand, the reactive-infiltration instability is a mechanism triggered internally, and it automatically

Journal of Geology

TERRA ROSSA GENESIS

would go through a cascade of scales, which seems

best able to account for the spectrum of scales observed in karst limestones.
Discussion
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the new geodynamic theory presented here is the prediction
that terra rossa genesis causes the karst morphology, a prediction confirmed by the worldwide association of terra rossa with karst limestones. The
new picture of terra rossa genesis starts with the
discovery of a 10-cm metasomatic front at the base
of the Bloomington terra rossa. The petrographic
evidence of replacement of limestone by authigenic
red clay is conclusive. The field evidence, figure 1,
of a bizonal replacement-plus-leaching front also is
conclusive. The solutes needed to make the clay
must come from dissolution, by rain and soil water,
of the finest fraction of the eolian dust supplied to
the top of the terra rossa. The top of the terra rossa
is commonly altered pedologically. The terra rossa
can be easily eroded, especially in advanced karst.
A particular terra rossa formation, if still uneroded,
may now be viewed as the authigenic claystone
recording the finest dust fraction fallen at the site
in question.
The new picture generates predictions that are
confirmed by observations:
1. The prediction that the replacement reaction
(eq. [1]), via the acid it releases, should leach additional limestone is confirmed by the occurrence
of the leaching zone A just ahead of the replacement zone B (fig. 1).
2. Maliva and Sievers (1988) conjecture of the
mechanism of replacement, which calls for pressure solution of host driven by the induced stress
generated by the guest, is confirmed by our discovery of microstylolitic, serrated replacement
contacts between clay and calcite (figs. 3, 4), to our
knowledge not reported before.
3. The new porosity created in the fronts leaching zone qualitatively should trigger the reactiveinfiltration instability (but see Future Work
about the need to check this quantitatively). This
instability theoretically must deform the moving
front into a set of wormholes (and then funnels and
then sinks). This predicted morphology is confirmed by the occurrence of karst limestones associated with terra rossa everywhere. (There are
many karst limestones, especially mature karst
towers, without terra rossa on them, but it must
be remembered that the red clays can be eroded
and/or washed off easily from the underlying
limestone.)

73

4. We suggest that the major elements needed to

make authigenic clay at the front must come in
aqueous form from the dissolution of the finest
dust fraction at the surface. This suggestion finds
tentative confirmation in the widespread occurrence of undissolved quartz silt in many thin sections of older terra rossa far behind and above the
front (see fig. 2d).
Implications for Limestone Weathering. The geodynamic model suggests that limestone weathering
takes placesee figures 1, 5, and 6partly by pressure solution in the replacement zone and partly
by chemical dissolution in the leaching zone by
reaction (2), driven by the acid released by the replacement (eq. [1]). Note that this acid comes from
clay formation, not from meteoric carbonic acid. It
is because the two dissolutionspressure solution
and chemical dissolutionare mutually accelerating that carbonate weathering probably proceeds
(at the wormholes, funnels, and sinks) at much faster rates than hitherto thought, if the dust supply
permits. (In contrast, according to the conventional
view in geomorphology, limestone weathers by
chemical dissolution alone, with the dissolution
driven at roughly constant kinetics by meteoric carbonic acid.)
Future Work. We hope that other investigators
will undertake petrographic analysis of the narrow
reaction zone between other terra rossas and their
underlying carbonates to confirm and refine our
petrography and to establish (by petrophysical
study) the porosity and permeability ranges of red
claystones. Also, the new model must be checked
(1) by quantitative reaction-transport modeling of
the formation of terra rossa clays (A. Banerjee and
E. Merino, unpub. manuscript) and comparison of
its predictions to observations; (2) by isotopic and
chemical analyses aiming to establish that (or
whether) the major elements do reach the front as
aqueous species from dust dissolution; and especially (3) by quantitative modeling of the reactiveinfiltration instability in the specific case of the
bizonal front of figure 1. Aharonov et al.s 1997
impressive three-dimensional modeling of the reactive-infiltration instability referred to a moving
front at which only a dissolution advection feedback takes place. But for the terra rossamaking
front of figure 1, the feedback that must be studied
by instability analysis is that between advection
and several coupled reactions, namely, growth of
clay with simultaneous pressure solution of calcite
by reaction (1), cementation of previous voids by
reaction (3), and simultaneous leaching of voids by
reaction (2).

74

E. MERINO AND A. BANERJEE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ideas and petrography were discussed with R. L.

Hay, professor emeritus of the Universities of Illinois and California at Berkeley, in the fall of 2005.
He died on February 10, 2006, in Tucson. This article is dedicated to his memory. Thanks to our
` . Canals of the University of Barcelona for
friends A
the photomicrograph in figure 4c and A. Basu, C.

Li, J. Schieber, and J. R. Dodd of Indiana University

for comments on a draft, the photomicrograph in
figure 4b, the use of a Zeiss polarizing microscope,
and advice on Bloomingtons Mississippian carbonates, respectively. We appreciate critical reviews by
three reviewers for the journal. We thank Indiana
University for a grant-in-aid to cover thin sectioning and travel.

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